Freeway Pollution Causes Brain Damage, Alzheimer's
Your daily freeway commute just got more dangerous. According to researchers at the University of Southern California, even short-term exposure to vehicle pollution can cause significant brain damage similar to that of age-associated memory loss and Alzheimer's disease.
Freeways Are More Polluted Than You Realize
Many studies have been published over the last decade showing the health hazards of freeway air. The heavy concentration of vehicular traffic fill the air with exhaust gas, microscopic particles from burning fossil fuel, degrading tires, and pavement. Most of these particles are only a fraction the size of a human hair, too small for car filtration systems and therefore enter the breathing air inside car cabins and atmosphere. Measurements of pollution taken at freeways are astronomically greater than areas of less vehicular use and the air pollution inside car cabins is even worse, measuring at 2 to 3 times that of the freeway air itself. Furthermore, if you live within three football fields of a freeway, you are likely being exposed to the same levels of pollutants as if you were living in the middle of the freeway itself.
Brain Damage Caused by Pollution
In the study, published today in Environmental Health Perspectives journal, the researchers re-created the freeway pollution environment in a lab setting with the use of actual collected freeway particles. The controlled experiment exposed mice to approximately 150 hours of freeway pollution spread out over the course of 10 weeks. The researchers found that the mice who were exposed to the pollution had significant damage to brain neurons responsible for learning and memory, inflammation associated with premature aging and Alzheimer's disease, and overall impaired brain development.